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Carter Cleaning Centres

The New Training Program

Currently, Carter Cleaning Centres has no formal orientation or training policies or procedures in place. Jennifer believes this is one reason why the standards to which she and her father would like employees to adhere are generally not followed.

The Carters would prefer that certain practices and procedures be used to deal with the front counter customers. For example, all customers should be greeted with what Jack refers to as a big hello. Garments they drop off should immediately be inspected for any damage or unusual stains so these can be brought to the customers attention before they leave their items to be processed. This would certainly reduce the number of customers who may later blame the store for those stains when they discover them upon pickup. The garments are then supposed to be sorted into nylon sacks to separate the garments in each order and prevent any mix-up of items with another customers order. The ticket also has to be carefully written, with the customers name, telephone number, and the date clearly noted on all copies. The counter person is also supposed to take the opportunity to try to upsell the customer additional services such as waterproofing, or simply notify the customer that Now that people are doing their spring cleaning, were having a special on drapery cleaning all this month. Finally, as the customer leaves, the counter person is supposed to make a courteous comment like, Have a nice day.

Each of the other jobs in the storespressing, cleaning, spotting, and so forthsimilarly contain certain steps, procedures, and, most importantly, standards the Carters would prefer to see upheld.

The company has had problems, Jennifer feels, because of a lack of adequate employee training and orientation. For example, two new employees became very upset last month when they discovered that they were not paid at the end of the week, on Friday, but instead were paid (as are all Carter employees) on the following Tuesday. The Carters use the extra two days, in part, to give them time to obtain everyones hours and compute their pay. The other reason they do it, according to Jack, is that frankly, when we stay a few days behind in paying employees it helps to ensure that they at least give us a few days notice before quitting on us. While we are certainly obligated to pay them anything they earn, we find that psychologically they seem to be less likely to just walk out on us Friday evening and not show up Monday morning if they still havent gotten their pay from the previous week. This way they at least give us a few days notice so we can find a replacement.

Other matters could be covered during orientation and training, says Jennifer. These include company policy regarding paid holidays, lateness and absences, health benefits (there are none, other than workers compensation), substance abuse, eating or smoking on the job (both forbidden), and general matters like the

maintenance of a clean and safe work area, personal appearance and cleanliness, time sheets, personal telephone calls, and personal email.

Jennifer believes that implementing orientation and training programs would help to ensure that employees know how to do their jobs the right way. And she and her father further believe that it is only when employees understand the correct procedures and standards expected by management that there is any hope their jobs will be accomplished the way the Carters want them to be accomplished.

Questions

1 Specifically, what should the Carters cover in their new employee orientation program, and how should they convey this information?

2 In the HR management course Jennifer took, her instructor discussed the use of a job instruction sheet to identify tasks performed by an employee. Should Carter Cleaning Centres use a form like this for the counter persons job? If so, what should the form look like?